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15 August 2017

ARTICLE: Anne HOLTHOEFER, Construction of International Crime: Lawyers, States, and the Origin of International Criminal Prosecution in the Interwar Period (Law & Social Inquiry XLII (2017), No. 3, 711-743)

Anne Holthoefer (Saint Anselm College) published an article on the "construction of international crime" and the interbellum.

Abstract:

This article explains the development of
international crime as a legal category. I argue that states’ pursuit of
political rights claims empowers international lawyers to develop new
legal categories to grant states new tools to pursue their interests. At
the same time, lawyers have a stake in defending the autonomy of law
from politics, thus pushing for the development of legal norms and
institutions that go beyond the original state intent. States’ turn to
law thus begets more law, expanding the legal and institutional tools to
solve international problems while simultaneously enforcing a
commitment to principles of legality. To demonstrate the plausibility of
the theory, the article studies the construction of the concept of an
international crime in the interwar period (1919–1939). In response to
the Allies’ attempt to prosecute the German Emperor, international
lawyers sought the codification of international criminal law and
drafted enforcement mechanisms. The interwar legal debate not only
introduced international crime into the legal and political vocabulary,
it also legitimized a new set of institutional responses to violations
of international law, namely, international criminal prosecution.